As Bengals defensive captain Germaine Pratt prepares for the first of his 83 NFL games in his adopted hometown of Charlotte Sunday (1 p.m.-Cincinnati's Channel 19), only Jacksonville's Foyesade Oluokun with nine forced fumbles has more among NFL inside linebackers in the 2020s.
Pratt constantly urges his teammates "to be about the ball," and this week Bengals.com senior writer Geoff Hobson has been all about Pratt for this week's conversation. Pratt talks about why Sunday is an emotional game and what his defense has to do to stop old friend Andy Dalton.
The Conversation:
GH: You grew up in High Point, N.C. How far is that from Charlotte?
GP: An hour and 30 depending on where you're at.
GH: Why did you move to Charlotte?
GP: Just better quality of life.
GH: Now your mom, Shemeka Bland, lives in Charlotte, too, after you moved her out of High Point. You wanted to take care of her. She raised you working a couple of different jobs.
GP: That's what I did my rookie year. She moved to Charlotte, too. When I was growing up, she did home health care and worked at Waffle House. Both jobs.
GH: I remember she said she could have followed your career in high school and college just listening to her customers while she was waiting tables.
GP: Most of them would go to the games or see the newspapers. Back then, people would read newspapers and drink coffee at the Waffle House.
GH: You bought a house for her in Charlotte?
GP: She lives about 30 minutes from me. It's comfortable for her. Over time she'll move somewhere else. She still does home care. I've told her she can stop, but she still wants to do stuff. She comes to games whenever she wants. Early on, she worked on weekends sometimes to help out. Now she doesn't work on weekends and can come to any game she wants to go.
GH: I call you Pratt because she calls you Pratt. Why does she call you by you last name?
GP: Everybody used to call me Pratt, to be honest. Just playing football as Pratt. Mostly everybody knows your last name when you make plays.
GH: What does she call your kids?
GP: Doodle and Pumpkin.
GH: How old are they now?
GP: The boy, Kylan, is four. The girl, Kynle, is three
GH: Why Ks?
GP: Their mom. Her name is Kena.
GH: I know one of the reasons you played football is to make life better for your family. You didn't have an easy childhood.
GP: No. Things were hard. That's why I played football, basically trying to make it out for a better life. Football was like an escape for me. Escape from everything going on around me.
My surroundings, and what was going on then, I thought it was beneficial to play sports, stay out of the streets, and try to find my way in life. Growing up there was crime. There's always going to be crime depending on what you hang around. Mostly I was around drugs.
GH: You knew right away you didn't want that?
GP: Absolutely. I found football at an early age. I always watched Ed Reed play football.
GH: He was your guy as a kid?
GP: I loved Ed Reed. The way he was passionate and would just get the ball. I used to watch a little bit of Peanut Tillman from the Bears. I always watched the Carolina Panthers when they had Julius Peppers and all of them.
GH: You grew up a Panthers fan?
GP: I was a Panthers fan until they didn't draft me (in 2019). So yeah. They had a good group of core guys. I thought I would go to the Panthers because Luke Kuechly retired the next year (2020) and Thomas Davis left (in 2019).
GH: Is Peppers your favorite Panther? He's getting his Hall of Fame ring Sunday when you guys are there
GP: He was one of them. But I loved Steve Smith. The way he carried himself. The way he was dynamic. I always knew that Steve Smith would show up every weekend with the passion and love he had for the game. The way he was just relentless on the field.
GH: You played them in Cincinnati and beat them in 2022.
GP: They came here and I caught an interception.
GH: This is your first NFL game in Charlotte
GP: This will be an emotional game, I'd say. It's where I came from. Being in the NFL for six years, you just don't take anything for granted. Getting closer to the end with playing football, I say. But now you're going to play in your hometown where you grew up, and never went to a football game and never been to the stadium for an NFL game. I played there when I was in college (for North Carolina State).
GH: You never went to a pro game there?
GP: No.
GH: Couldn't afford it?
GP: No. I couldn't afford it back then.
GH: How many tickets are you buying for Sunday?
GP: I'd say right now 20. That might go up by the end of the week.
GH: Pretty good for a guy who couldn't afford it as a kid.
GP: I think most people don't really realize that I actually have to pay for the tickets, so they just ask. But I'm in a situation where I'm thankful and I'm blessed enough to be able to give them that experience.
GH: You're always all about the ball. How did that start?
GP: I got started with that watching Ed Reed and how Peanut Tillman attacked the ball. I saw he had 10 one year. Who has 10 forced fumbles in one year at the corner position? That just speaks volumes how dominant he was looking for the ball. He was involved more when you think about it because wide receivers are just turning and running. They're looser with the ball.
GH: More challenging for you to force a fumble at linebacker?
GP: Yeah, I'm around the ball because there's more inside stuff, but wide receivers are looser with it.
GH: You did force a fumble on tight end Zach Ertz Monday night on what would have been a huge play in the fourth quarter at the Washington 30. How near were you to a recovery?
GP: I was close. But not close enough to get it. The O-line jumped on it.
GH: Your biggest turnover is the interception on the last snap of the 2021 AFC Wild Card win over the Raiders. Do people bring it up a lot still?
GP: Yes. Some people say they cried, and it was like, just the greatest thing. It's always one of my favorite moments in my life, I'd say. To give a positive thing to the Bengals. To this city and its positive vibes. Breaking 31 years of not winning a playoff game. So it was a good moment for me.
GH: Do you think the vibe is still there?
GP: The vibe is still there. We just have to get the first win. Get headed in the right direction. We know what team we have. We just have to go out there and win.
GH: Can you put a finger on the pulse of the defense headed into Carolina?
GP: Individuals just have to do their jobs a lot better. Don't panic. Just have more urgency of doing your job. I just have to look at myself and figure out how I can be better and how I can help other guys just being in the right position, doing my job to a higher level than I've already been doing. Just playing better and playing a complete game. Every phase has to play a good game. I don't think we've played a complete game in all phases. I think this week we're going to break through and get headed in the right direction.
GH: This is the first year you've been a captain. Has the start to the season changed your approach to being a captain?
GP: I don't think I'm going to change my approach, but I feel like each and every week I come in with the same mindset to get better and help others around me get better. We've been here before. We've been 0-2, 1-3 and stuff. We just have to keep getting better. We have great guys in here. We're banged up in some areas on the field.
GH: Joe Burrow was saying the other day maybe he has to be more vocal. But it seems like guys like you and him do a lot of talking on the field because of your positions.
GP: He is a leader. I always talk or always keep on learning from other people around me. I try to help them or just keep on finding positive vibes throughout the game because there are highs and lows in a game. Somebody makes a play. Somebody doesn't make a play. You have to roll to the next play. Don't let that bad play you had affect the whole game.
GH: It looked like on Monday night Washington hit you with an up-tempo offense.
GP: They stole that from Kansas City. Kansas City first drive. What did they do? They tempoed us the first drive. Washington tempoed us in spurts throughout the game and tried to get us thinking. They were getting the ball out fast.
I don't think we were confused. We weren't just all together like we normally are. The temp was (a little bit of a factor.) We tried to match our personnel and sometimes they got us with that.
GH: Do you think Panthers quarterback Andy Dalton is going to up-tempo?
GP: If somebody is watching the live copy like some teams do. I know I watch live copy. I've seen some things others might not see
GH: You mean the TV copy.
- Yes. See how defenses work, or see some signals that people see and stuff like that. See the flow of the game. Why they're running this particular play. Or why that area of the play. I think they would probably try to steal a little bit of it
GH: And you're known to watch everything.
GP: I got watching (the TV copy) from a coach at NC State. (Defensive coordinator) Dave Huxtable. He would show us little clips from the live copy and show it in the film, so I used to watch that and see the flow of the game.
GH: How do you beat the fast tempo?
GP: We've been tempoed the last two games. We just have to get the calls in fast, get ready, set the feet, and make negative plays. Once you get some negative plays, that slows them down.
